HISTORY, ROMANCE AND...CATS!
Grace Elliot leads a double life as a vet by day and author of intelligent historical fiction by night. Grace is an avid reader and believes that smart people need to read romance - as an antidote to the modern world!
Grace is also obsessed by all things feline.

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Sunday, 24 June 2012

Dinner with Mrs Rundel. Welcome to Maria Grace!

Today I'm delighted to welcome author, Maria Grace, to the blog. Maria has been writing since she was 10, although those early efforts are not for public consumption! She has one husband, two graduate degrees and two black belts, three sons, four
undergraduate majors, five nieces, six cats, seven Regency-era fiction projects
and notes for eight more writing projects in progress. To round out the list,
she cooks for nine in order to accommodate the growing boys and usually makes
ten meals at a time so she only cooks twice a month.So without further ado, a warm welcome to Maria who posts on 19th century dining!

Maria's book has an awesome 4-plus * rating on Goodreads (27 reviews)

Dinner with Mrs. Rundel.

Oftentimes writers write what they know and I suppose I am
no exception. With three teen-aged sons, food can be a big deal. Lots of
entertaining and important things happen around the dinner table. So it isn’t
surprising that in nearly everything I write I feature at least one important
mealtime scene.

All this is well and good, except that food, like
everything else has changed a great deal in the last two hundred or so years.
What constitutes a satisfying meal today looks entirely different from the
expectations of the 1800’s. Can anyone say ‘research’?

Enter my newest, or should I say oldest, favorite
cookbook: New System of Domestic
Cookery: Founded up Principles of Economy; and Adapted to the Use of Private
Families, by Mrs. Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell (1745-December 16, 1828).
‘Mrs. Rundell’ as it was often referred to, was the most popular English cookbook
of the first half of the nineteenth century. The first edition came out in
1806, several later editions were published with additions by other
contributors.

At the time, few books on domestic management were
available. Mrs. Rundel collected tips and recipes for her three daughters out
of her thirty years’ experience running her household in Bath. Initially she
planned to have four copies made, but Jane Austen’s publisher got involved and
the rest is, as they say, history.

With Mrs. Rundel’s assistance I learned a great deal about
both food and domestic concerns in the early 1800’s. Who would have guessed
stale white bread was good for cleaning wallpaper?

Just as cleaning methods changed, what foods are served
for a meal have changed as well. For dinner I might serve a lasagna, green
salad and dinner rolls or corn salad, roast broccoli and mushrooms,
Peloponnesian pot roast and barley pilaf. Not so our ancestors. A whole host of
unfamiliar dishes and meal plans awaited me in the pages so generously penned
by Mrs. Rundel.

Her final chapter contains dinner plans for family
dinners. For us, dinner consists of three or four dishes, she starts at five
and works her way up very quickly, all the way up to two courses of eleven
dishes plus removes. (Removes were dishes that were replaced with something
else part way through the course). I have to admit, the thought makes my head
swim. For a big holiday dinner with all the relatives coming, I might make
eight dishes, not including dessert, which I try to have someone else bring.
Twenty two to twenty four dishes and you might just need to lock me up in a
room with very soft walls!

The contents of Mrs. Rundel’s menus were also very heavy
on the meat dishes. For example, a five course meal might include: Half Calf's
Head, grilled, (Remove and replace with Pie or Pudding.)Tongue and
Brains, Carrot Soup, Greens round bacon, Saddle of Mutton, and Potatoes and
Salad, at side table.That’s three mean dishes out of the five.
Atkins friendly I suppose.

Her
most elaborate meal plan, ‘eleven and eleven, and two
removes’ just made my head spin. It is hard to imagine how much kitchen
staff it would take to accomplish this meal, especially when you take into
consideration the lack of refrigeration and other modern conveniences. Notice
the mix of dishes too. I would never serve a raspberry tart and lobster and
duck all on the same course.

Mrs.
Rundel kindly includes recipes for many, though not all of these dishes. (I
cannot for the life of me figure out what ‘Fry’ is.) A few of them are rather
interesting.

I am not sure how many
of these are going to show up on my dinner table. But I may just try the Stewed
Cucumbers one of these days.

Some of
these dishes make appearances in my Given Good Principles series. The
first book, Darcy’s Decision was released in January and is available on
Amazon.com. The second, Darcy’s helpmate (or possibly The
Future Mrs. Darcy—indecision is taking its toll on me right now!) will
be released in July. The final volume, Principles and Virtue is slated for
release at the end of 2012.

And in case you’d like
to know what I’m serving for dinner, here’s my
Peloponnesian Roast recipe, simple, unique and flavorful.

Thank you so much, Maria, for a gem of a post - right up my street. The Mrs Rundel book is a real find and one I'm going to check out. Best of luck with your writing - I cannt wait to read 'Darcy's Decision' - it has some awesome reviews on Goodreads!

Grace x

Darcy's Decision - the story.

Six months after
his father's passing, Fitzwilliam Darcy still finds solace in his morning
reflections at his parents' graves. Only in the quiet solitude of the churchyard
does he indulge his grief. None but his unlikely mentor recognize the heartache
and insecurity plaguing him as he shoulders the enormous burden of being Master
of Pemberley.

Not all are pleased with his choice of advisor. Lady Catherine complains
Darcy allows him too much influence. Lord Matlock argues, "Who is
he to question the God-appointed social order?" But the compassionate wisdom
Darcy finds in his counselor keeps him returning for guidance even though it
causes him to doubt everything he has been taught.

In the midst of his struggles to reinvent himself, his school chum,
Charles Bingley, arrives. Darcy hopes the visit will offer some respite from the
uproar in his life. Instead of relief, Darcy discovers his father's darkest
secret staring him in the face. Pushed to his limits, Darcy must
overcome the issues that ruined his father and, with his friends and mentor at
his side, restore his tarnished birthright.

Hope's Betrayal

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